


Star Wars Episode Pre-7: The Origins of Rey

by bookgirl812



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:21:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28473846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookgirl812/pseuds/bookgirl812
Summary: Let's ignore episode 9. Shortly after Ben leaves Luke to join Snoke and Luke has exiled himself to the planet of Ahch-To, he begins to get visions of a young girl with dark hair who has great power with the force but is being trained in the ways of the dark side. Can he save her? Should he? What should he do if he does?
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Luke's POV   


A young girl with dark hair pulled back runs through an industrial wasteland. Laser bolts shoot towards her as she dodges without missing a step. She leaps off a ledge and twists so that she can avoid the blades of the droid swooping at her from the right. A narrow miss. She lands with a tumble and scrambles back to her feet, pulling out a stick. The stick is her saber. She hasn’t earned a saber yet.  


She’s now surrounded by small, round droids, hovering just above her head. She swings the stick around at them, smashing them to the ground. She has missed one though and its laser bolt hits her shoulder. She hesitates, gasping in pain. She swings her stick at it but misses.  


“Enough!” a female voice shouts at her from the shadows. The droid is now slightly higher, out of her reach. It still hasn’t disarmed.  


“If you aren’t going to use your feelings to eliminate your enemies, you can be target practice for them. Fire.” The droid powered up as the little girl began to whimper.

Luke woke with a start. His dream still floated in his mind. He had been having a lot of these dreams lately, but they didn’t typically feature people he didn’t know. They typically featured his nephew, or his sister. They were visions of things to come or things already happening to him. But why would he be seeing something so alien to him? He didn’t know this girl. Was it a vision of something that had passed? Or something to come? Or was it happening as he wondered?  


Luke sat up and got out of bed. He walked out of his cottage on Ahch-To and looked around the dusky countryside. He still hadn’t adjusted to his new surroundings, thinking about his vision. Just as Yoda had sat in the swamps of Dagobah, waiting for the Jedi to re-emerge, Luke wandered through the hills of Ahch-To, waiting for the Jedi to die. He had just begun his self exile, left it all. Force users as strong as him were too dangerous for this galaxy, and Jedi needed to die, even if there were still sith. Jedi led to sith, fed into them, gave them a purpose and a drive. In exile, Luke could fade away, hopefully fading away the entire Jedi system as he did.  


Did he know that girl? What about the voice? Had he ever encountered that voice? It was a woman’s voice, raspy, but hard to identify as it echoed through the cavernous area where the girl...ran? Trained? Tried to escape? Some of the training reminded him of his remedial lessons with Obi-wan and Yoda, but as if they had no regard for his well being. And he had never received punishment. Failure led to harder work, more practice, more meditation. That was what he tried to instill in his own pupils. Focus on your connection to the force, feel it, let your emotions fade away. Shouting and punishment would only feed into anger, the way of the dark side.  


Luke had finally reached the top of the hillside. He could see nearly the entirety of the island he was on. He looked out at the water surrounding him on all sides, fierce, strong, chaotic, but with the potential to be channeled as needed. Perhaps that was why he felt such a deep connection to the force here, as though it was concentrated in the deep caves below. He sat down and began to meditate, attempting to see the girl again. If she was out there now, he might be able to reach out and feel her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for child in peril experiencing abuse/neglect.

Luke remained on the hill for three days. In that time, all he had managed to accomplish was getting inside his own head. Well, more than he already was. He was trying to remain empty, passionless, dedicated. He was trying to become one with the Force which wasn’t an easy thing to do under the current circumstances. Physically hiding was easy enough. No one would look for him on Ahch-To. Hiding within the Force though, that was a skill he needed that he didn’t yet have.  


Hiding within the Force was completely antithetical to the very essence of the Force. The Force connected and flowed through everyone and everything. How could one powerful in the Force hide? Especially from others powerful in it. He didn’t want Leia to track him down, although he wasn’t sure if that was more so for the benefit of the greater good, or for himself. He had seen her once since Ben had left and that had been painful enough. To lose a son was bad enough, but to lose a son to the dark side, after all she’d been through learning her own parentage, that was almost worse. And it was his fault. He had failed everyone. So it wasn’t just cowardice keeping him here in his exile, it was for the good of all. He’d managed to save Vader with a lightsaber while damning Ben by the same means. The Force needed to be balanced, and if that meant living here for the rest of his days, away from everyone he’d ever been close to, then so be it.  


But not only did he need to stay hidden from Force users on the light side so that he could better fade away, he also needed to stay hidden from those on the dark side. If Snoke, Ben, or any of their followers were to find him, well, he didn’t want to think about it.  


And so that was how he ended up spending three days on top of a hill trying to connect to the Force while staying hidden from it. He wasn’t even sure if the girl was real. Surely Jedis can have dreams too. Perhaps all this was causing nightmares. But it didn’t feel like it was just a dream. It felt exactly like his visions of Ben, leading up to the night he decided to act, the night that he’d damned himself and everyone around him and would regret for the rest of his life.  


Time to rest and recover, nourish the body while resting the spirit. He climbed down the hill towards his cottage where he had a light meal of bread and fruit, still not acclimated enough to the island or the planet to know what was available to eat. He’d seen some small birds but he had not eaten terrestrial meat since Aunt Beru’s womprat brisket back on Tatooine. He then looked around his humble cottage. There was still much work to do if he wanted this to be his home for the rest of his days. He’d manage to assemble a single room hut with a small bed in a corner but the draft was terrible and he was sure the roof leaked. Making note of a potentially problematic crack in the stones near the roof, he headed to bed for the night for a much needed rest. He was exhausted after walking the type rope between connecting within the Force while avoiding observance through it.  


Immediately upon falling asleep he was flooded with visions of the small girl with the dark hair. She was shivering, crouching down over a bowl full of a slop Luke could not recognize. She was shoveling it into her mouth with her hands, hyper focused on it except for the occasional, rabid glance around her. Her surroundings weren’t very clear to him, they were either dark or he just couldn’t see. He heard something in the distance, and so did she. Footsteps, perhaps? They got louder and created a thunderous echo.  


“Girl!” shouted the same female voice from before.  


“Y-y-yes-yes Mistress Kai?” the girl stammered as she stood, leaving the nearly empty bowl at her feet as she wiped her hands together. Her eyes peered up, wide and scared.  


“More training! This time with a partner.”  


The footsteps resumed. The girl rushed to keep up, licking her fingers as she went. Luke’s vague view of her followed her down...a corridor? For all he could tell they may have been walking through a wide, open field on a cloudy day.  


The footsteps stopped and the girls stopped soon after. She seemed to physically shrink back even more, if such a thing were even possible without her actually running away.  


“You and our brother here will be fighting to look into each other’s minds,” the female voice said. Luke was unable to see who the girl’s opponent was, but judging from the girl’s response, he seemed to be incredibly intimidating even if his actual physical appearance was unclear.  


The girl’s face cleared, as much as such a child’s could. She stared straight ahead, her brown eyes still betraying hints of the fear that seemed to always exist within her. After a handful of moments, she began to wince in pain.  


“Concentrate! Tap into your inner power! Tap into your anger, your hatred! Feel it! Burn him with it! This oaf shouldn’t be besting you!” the woman’s voice screeched.  


The girl began to tremble throughout her body, in a way that showed she was obviously trying to remain still. After some more time, her hands began to ball into fists, her nails digging into her palms. She gritted her teeth and a shrill cry began to come from her mouth despite her clear attempts to hold it back.  


“YOU WILL STAY AWAY FROM ME!” she shrieked. Luke could hear a deafening, crash coming from everywhere.  


Once things settled down, the girl crumpled and began to shake uncontrollably. Luke could hear footsteps once again, this time accompanied by clapping.  


“Very well, little one. It seems he is dead. It seems we can progress your training.”  


Luke awoke with a start, the vision of the young girl glancing up still in his mind’s eye, accompanied by the image of some purple eyes he knew of.


	3. Chapter 3

Luke spent the next seven days trying to ignore his visions. His visions of the girl, his visions of the female voice he now realized he recognized behind the distortion. The dark side was rising, gaining power from more sources than he’d realized. Ben and his knights were gone, with Snoke, because of him. His students were dead. And now he knew that yet another faction of dark side force users were hiding in the shadows. The sith were not destroyed with Sidious and Vader, they were fractured. How could someone defeat this hydra of an enemy? And if anyone could, who’s to say it would be Luke? Luke, who had failed everyone.  


When the empire fell, two power vacuums opened up. Leia was helping to fill one, the one left by the emperor and imperial government itself. She was helping to found the new republic, if from the sidelines due to her reputation from her late-discovered parentage. Leia was a skilled leader and knew politics. She was a master at what she did and, although not easy, Leia was successful.  


Meanwhile, Luke had inadvertently been working at deepening the other vacuum left behind by the fall of the emperor. There was now no true sith leader, no master, and no apprentices. And with no strong, central power, the sith had fractured. Their fractured state, rather than leading to weakness and eventual dissolution, had led to diversity and strength in each cause. There was Snoke and his people who now included Luke’s own nephew. Luke had not only allowed Snoke to rise to power, but had missed the signs of Ben following him towards the dark side. Luke had fuelled and supplied Snoke with power and allies.  


But Snoke wasn’t the only dark sider who had crawled out of the shadows, hoping to rise to power. Luke had met one particular faction of sith witches who dated back to the days of the Republic, before the rise of the Empire. They went around the galaxy kidnapping force sensitive children and then trained them in their ways. Luke had gone up against them once before when he was first starting his own recruitment while trying to reestablish the Jedi ways. He had personally looked into those purple eyes and heard that sinister voice before. And now, although he still didn’t know the identity of the girl who came to him in his visions, he knew exactly who she was: a force sensitive child with a head start on the path to the dark side. And a seemingly powerful one as well.  


When Luke trained his young padawans at the start, he had them spend much time in meditation, familiarizing themselves with their connection to the force. It seems that the Nightsisters either did not take that approach, or they had had this girl for a while. From what Luke had seen of the girl and her powers, he wasn’t sure which was the worse outcome.  


But why was he getting visions of her? Jedis of course could feel when great suffering occurred, but they obviously didn’t get regular visions of every being in the galaxy who was experiencing any great suffering. There were stories of force users having visions of the suffering of those close to them, whether it was in real time or prophecy. Vader himself had visions of the deaths of both his own mother and Luke’s shortly before they each died. But Luke did not know this girl nor of any possible connection they could possibly have. So why was he seeing her?  


By this point he was walking along the rocky cliffs by the shore, hoping that the white noise of the waves crashing below would drown out the serenity which allowed him to slip into meditation, emphasizing his force connection. Or perhaps he could slip and fall and literally drown in the sea. Perhaps with his death the Jedi could die, and with them their opposite, the sith. Then the Force could truly be balanced. How could he expect the Force to remain balanced with a rise of the light and the destruction of the dark? Perhaps the reason he was seeing this girl was not because of her connection to him, but his connection to her suffering. He encouraged the rise of the sith with his attempts to make the light rise, and now this girl was facing the consequences of his ambitions. So what was his duty now? Luke had defeated the sith once before, and yet somehow he’d been fighting it ever since, with it each day growing stronger. And each time he’d been less successful.  


He reached the summit of a small boulder field that bled into the jagged rocks below. He was close enough to the violent tides that he could feel the sea spray his cheeks. He was cold and he was damp and he was alone. Nobody could find him except for this girl and her agony. When he had last tried to bring balance to the Force by neutralizing the sith, he had failed. He had acted with cold rationality. He spent so much time fearing that Vader would come out in him that he hadn’t noticed that it had taken Ben until it was too late. And then when he believed that his nephew was lost, had become Kylo Ren the same way his father had become Darth Vader, he did the thing he felt was right, an action of no emotion, no attachment, just the logical choice. He knew exactly what could happen when an apparently caring man became seduced to the dark side and he couldn’t risk the death, destruction, and suffering it had caused to happen again. And by following through with that decision, he sealed his nephew’s fate and damned them all.  


So what could--what should--he do about this girl, powerful and raised on the path of the dark side? For now he had decided to stick with his plan. Interference had only led to the enrichment of the sith. If he stayed in his solitary exile, staying disconnected from others both on the physical plane and by the Force, then the Jedi could die, and with it the sith. And then he wouldn’t have to worry about this girl, because she would be the last of her fate as well.


	4. Chapter 4

In the seven days since his last vision of the girl, Luke had nearly managed to convince himself that forgetting her was the right decision, was making the same decision. By letting the Jedi die, he was letting the sith die. But he wasn’t entirely sure. Deciding not to stay also led to too many uncertainties, too many questions, and too many risks. He wasn’t even sure where the girl was--surely the Nightsisters had moved on since he last encountered them. Going to her would be going against every reason for his exile.  


He wasn’t a hero, not anymore at least, not that he even really was one. He thought that he could be, once. He saw a vision of a young woman in distress and risked his life to save her. But were his motivations so noble? Or was he just grasping at any reason to leave Tatooine for adventure? Did he really need another adventure?  


And what would he do if he went to the girl? She was a powerful force user, trained in the ways of the sith. What if she’s too dangerous? And what if she’s not? Was he going to get a new padawan, start the Jedi academy anew again? Or would he need to do the rational choice divorced from emotion? That would be the true Jedi way, to divorce from the self and do what is right for all. But could something that terrible be the right thing?  


Staying in exile was by far the simplest choice, Luke had concluded each time. The Jedi need to die so that the sith can finally fall. And if the girl would be no better off if he were to come to her, then it would be best for her to stay where she was.  


On that seventh day, Luke walked through a meadow near his cottage in the general direction of the ruins of the old Jedi temple. Luke knew that Ahch-To was a fitting place for his exile. Nobody had managed to find any signs of the remains of the Jedis of the past for thousands of years, why would they find it now? He entered the temple through the stone archway and sat in one of the decrepit seats. His breath deepened as he closed his eyes and entered a meditative state. His goals for coming to Ahch-To were multi-faceted. He needed to exile himself from all of society, from everyone, to keep the galaxy safe and keep himself away from the dark side. He knew its seductive pull and he knew the consequences of even introducing others to it. But that didn’t mean that he wanted to be completely cut off from his connection to the Force, even while cutting his connection to everything else. In fact, he had come here to deepen his connection to the Force. Always hesitant to make himself seen, he had been focusing on exploring the different planes of the world. Obi-wan, Anakin, and Yoda had all gained the ability to cross from the plane of the dead to the plane of the dead to the plane of the living via their deep connections to the Force. While Luke did not wish to connect with the dead, he was drawn to the idea of entering a central plane of existence, of truly being one with the Force as the Force was with him.  


His conscious thoughts began to ebb and flow as he deepened his meditative stance, trying to let himself go but holding back to avoid detection. He always knew when to pull back, when he could begin to feel Leia or Ben. He would just barely feel them and then immediately pull away before they could notice. He could not have Ben find him, Ben would lead Snoke straight to him and the results of that could be disastrous, ending in the sith victorious, yet another power vacuum on the dark side, and/or the death of his nephew. He could not have Leia find him either, she would ask him to come back, knowing what he did, knowing what happened because of what he did, she would still want him to come back and help to strengthen the new Republic. But he couldn’t do either of those. He had to finally allow balance to come to the Force, even if that meant that bad things happened. Even if people died. Because with the Force unbalanced, worse things would happen.  


But this time, as we went deeper and deeper into the Force, almost leaving his body behind, he did not encounter Ben or Leia first, although those were the ones he normally did find. They were the closest to him, them being family. No, he began to feel the girl. He felt her fear, her anger, but something else as well. He felt hope, longing, and despair. And he felt love. There was still love in this girl, despite everything the ways of the sith would teach her. They would have been trying to snuff out her love, her joy, and just fuel her anger. They didn’t believe in sentimentality, only the power that comes from pure rage. While the Jedi of old believed in no attachments, the sith weren’t too keen on connections that could act as a weakness either. And yet this girl still felt hope and love. For whom? Was she a recent captive, still yearning for her family? If so, she was frighteningly powerful from what Luke had seen. But if not, then her heart was one of the strongest Luke had seen.  


The bigger question, the one that caused Luke to withdraw just as soon as he’d felt her, was why he was finding her first, before those he was closest to. This, combined with what he’d felt from her, the innocence of her heart despite the pollutants of rage instilled by the sith, are what finally led Luke to decide to go find her. And he now knew not only that he could find her, but he knew exactly where she was. However, he still didn’t know what to do once she was found.


	5. Chapter 5

After the fall of the empire and the deaths of Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, there was more work to be done than Luke and the rest of the rebellion could have even imagined. Luke, having been more of a Jedi/soldier, than a politician or leader, let the high ranking members of the rebellion take charge of re-establishing a Galactic Republic. Mon Mothra became the first chancellor and Leia was instrumental in the republic’s early establishment. Even after her relation to Vader was revealed, she still played a very active role in the newborn government, if in less obvious ways. This involved a lot of the same work Luke was involved in: keeping the sith at bay while attempting to establish some semblance of a new Jedi order. Luke had been withdrawing back when he first started training with Master Yoda, but this was when he began truly developing a relationship with the Force stronger than any relationship he had with any other person in the galaxy. He began honing his skills of seeking others out via the force and detecting those who were force sensitive. He began traveling around the galaxy seeking out young potential Jedi and restarting a Jedi school. Ben showed great powers from a very young age and Luke took him under his wing as a student, although he tried not to show his nephew special treatment. It was during this time of growth and establishment of the new Jedi order that Luke first interacted with the Nightsisters.

The Nightsisters dated back to before the Empire. They were a sect of force sensitive women, and sometimes men, who studied the ways of the Force in their own way. The particular clan that Luke had encountered were known as the Great Canyon Clan, a dark side practicing sect of the Nightsisters who continued training in the ways of the Force in hiding during the age of the Empire, hidden from the emperor as best as they could. With the Empire dissolved and Sidious dead, they began to pursue the same goal as Luke: establish their ways and grow in numbers. While Luke was travelling around the Galaxy recruiting, they did the same except they took any children they considered to be good potential members. They were becoming bolder and bolder. At first they restricted themselves to outer rim planets and planets that were close to their own star system. Emboldened by the lack of competition or anyone to go up against them, they started venturing further into the galaxy proper. Luke first learned about them while on a recruiting visit to see a child on the planet of Devaron in the Devaron system within the Colonies, very near the inner rim of the Galaxy. He arrived too late.

“He isn’t here! Haven’t you people done enough?” the mother of the boy Luke had asked about said to him as soon as he introduced himself through a partially open front door.

“I’m sorry but I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Where is he?” Luke responded, suddenly worried that he had felt the boy wrong, and that he had passed over some time recently due to the war. Not everyone was sympathetic towards the cause of the Rebellion while the Empire was in power. Many still weren’t thrilled as their lives were thrown into chaos as the Republic attempted to rebuild.

“That woman! She took him! I told her we didn’t want anything to do with this magic fantasy and she took him anyways.”

The boy’s mother punctuated her last sentence by slamming the door in Luke’s face. What woman? This wouldn’t be the last time he would encounter that question about the same woman.

He was unable to find out anything from any of the few Jedi texts he’d managed to get ahold of at that point, even though he had managed to scavenge a few from the Jedi temple on Devaron. He realized he needed some help.

Jedi who have passed over are not always available to be on anyone’s beck and call, but it was worth seeking advice as needed. Luke attempted to contact Obi wan for guidance. Perhaps he’d be able to give Luke some information about who this woman was who was kidnapping Force sensitive children. Fortunately, Obi wan did appear within a few hours of Luke first trying to contact him. 

“This must be serious,” Luke thought to himself as he looked up, surprised to see his former mentor appear so quickly.

“What is it that you need?” Obi wan asked steadily.

Luke told him of his odd encounter with the boy’s mother, of the woman who was seeking out Force sensitive children. “Is it possible there are others who survived through the purge? Or maybe it’s sith? Or just a coincidence?”

Obi wan considered everything he’d just heard and then nodded. “You said it was a woman who kidnapped the child?” Luke nodded. “It’s possible that new factions of force users have popped up over time, getting bolder with the fall of the empire and hoping to benefit from the chaos. But there is one particular sect of dark side users that is made up of women. Not all of them are sith, but certain factions of them are. They contracted themselves and their male subservients out to help the sith cause during the clone wars. Your father and I fought some of their stronger members many times. They were called the Nightsisters, although they fell and splintered with the rise of the Empire. I imagine Sidious wanted to wipe out any force sensitive competition, not just the Jedi. They were based off of Dathomir then, though I don’t know where they’d be now.”

Luke nodded and thanked his old master as Obi wan faded away. His simple recruitment mission had suddenly become one of tracking down old sects of sith witches. Dathomir seemed as good of a place to start as any.

When he got there, he was shocked to find an entire established prison facility, even if it was seemingly abandoned. The scenery was picturesque, with streams cutting through the canyons breaking up rolling hills and meadows. Large, lush rainforests made up the background further from the coast. By contrast, on top of one of the hills was the sight of utter destruction. The ground had been leveled and there was not a blade of grass growing near the facility. Luke approached the building with caution. He didn’t sense any life forms but he knew well enough by now to be carefully hesitant.

The facility was large and foreboding. Luke could not see a single window along any of the walls and there was one, singular door at the front that he could tell on sight was heavily reinforced. He waved his hand to open it, but it did not budge. “Strange,” he thought to himself. If it were staffed it would be expected that it would be closed and locked, but not so much if it were as abandoned as it seemed.

“R2, I guess I am going to need you. Get to the facility,” he called into his communication device. Several minutes later, R2-D2 rolled up the hill.

“I need you to open this door,” he said to the droid. R2 beeped in agreement and rolled over the door. He hooked into the door controls and seconds later it was open.

“Everything’s still active,” Luke muttered to himself and to the droid. “Come with me R2, I might still need you.” Luke and R2-D2 entered the facility. The large, blank, foreboding halls were just as empty as the outside appearance would suggest they’d be. They searched through the building for several hours, R2-D2 opening doors and operating elevators as needed. They didn’t encounter a single person but had learned much about this facility’s purpose: it was for certain a prison for powerful people. On one floor deep down that had required much effort on R2-D2’s part to get them there, they had found a corridor full of cells, each behind a pair of heavily-enforced doors that were fortunately open. Each cell contained the remnants of captivity devices that would hold even the most powerful users. Luke took note of both the mechanical shackles that would go on the prisoner’s wrists, ankles, and waist as well as the forcefield generators that would bind the body in its entirety. Scattered about were tools of pain, some of which Luke recognized from missions on imperial ships and bases, some he did not recognize and did not have either the imagination or the cruelty to deduce what they did. In the cell at the end of the hall he saw dried blood, scratches, and burns from laser weapons that stained parts of the wall and floor. “Someone important or difficult was kept here,” he thought. “Or both.”

He finally finished his search having answered none of the questions he came with, but answering several he hadn’t. This was an imperial prison, and the prisoners had been more hated by the Empire than even captured members of the Rebellion, judging from the conditions of the cells compared to the one Leia had been kept in when Luke first found her. Luke and R2-D2 headed out of the compound. Luke would head back to the school and try to figure out where these Nightsisters could have fled to. Just as he was walking through the door, he sensed it, the boy, but it was nearly too late as a figure dashed past him, slicing at him with a lightsaber.

Luke, although caught by surprise, quickly brought out his own saber and swung at the figure in defense. He finally got a good look at his opponent, it was a woman with long, jet black hair and purple eyes. She stood fiercely with her red lightsaber out, preparing to attack, but blocking the boy behind her who Luke had just noticed. As Luke gathered his wits, he wondered where they had come from, and how he had missed them.

“I’ve come for the boy. I mean you no harm if you let him go,” Luke commanded the woman.

“The boy is free to go whenever he’d like,” she said with a smirk. “I’m not going to force him to go anywhere,  _ Jedi _ .” She said jedi as though it were poison on her lips. She relaxed her stance and pointed her lightsaber down, although it was still active. She grabbed the boy and shoved him forward. “Speak, boy. This is a Jedi who has come to  _ rescue _ you from me. He wishes to teach you how to control your power, to use you for the light side of the Force, to teach you to fear the dark side and to eliminate foes like me.”

“I want to stay with Mistress Kai!” the boy shouted in a small voice, glancing nervously between Luke and the woman, Kai.

“You’ve poisoned his mind, seduced him with the dark side of the Force,” Luke sputtered at Kai. “Boy, Khi’leb, I want to teach you to master the Force, to become one with it, not to use it or be used. I want to bring you to the side of good, of balance,” he said to the boy with earnest.

“He’s already said no to you,  _ Jedi _ ,” she spat as she shoved the boy to the side, charging at Luke. He parried and swung back at her. She blocked his blow with ease and then force-shoved him into the side of the building.

“She’s powerful,” he thought to himself, wondering if she’d been the one restrained in the room full of carnage, or if there were others even more powerful, more dangerous than herself.

“I don’t wish to bring any of you harm! The sith are gone! The Empire has fallen! Those who have hurt you and your people are no more! We don’t have to be enemies,” he reasoned to the woman as she prepared another attack.

She charged at him again. As she swung for another attack that Luke barely managed to block, she snarled, “there are no others who have not hurt me and my people. The Jedi order is gone, but their sins remain. The Empire may have fallen, but the sith ways remain strong. The dark side of the force cannot be wiped out with the death of two old men who wished to rule their inferiors, wipe out their enemies, and squash their peers.”

The fight continued on, Luke keenly aware that the boy was right there, always trying to prevent the violence from straying too near him even though that seemed to be Kai’s goal. Luke finally managed to take advantage of a weakness in her defenses and slashed at her side, grazing her arm but not fully damaging the limb. She shouted in pain and glared at him with hatred.

“This is done,” she hissed at him. She slashed at him once more, screaming with rage, and hit him directly in the leg. He managed to block at the last fraction of a second, preventing major damage but not preventing serious injury. “I am taking the boy.” She turned and ran, grabbing the boy and leaping off of the cliff. Luke was blinded by the pain, attempting to recover, to gain some semblance of his mind, but all he could feel was the white hot pain from the wound in his leg.

“R2. R2, do you come in?” he finally mustered into the communicator. “R2, I can’t make it back to the ship on my own.” The droid rushed to his side, having managed to stay hidden in the interiors of the facility, waiting for the call of his master and/or the carnage to be over. He created a makeshift gurney out of cables and paneling to drag Luke back to the ship. “R2, get us home,” Luke said as he lost consciousness at the pilot’s seat.

That was the day Luke first met the Great Canyon Clan sect of the Nightsisters, a dark side-worshipping faction of the Dathomir witches. Little did he know that day that the cliff the woman, who he later learned to be Tamith Kai, the leader of that sect, jumped off of led to the Great Canyon for which the sect was made. After his recovery, he learned much more about the Nightsisters, a foe he did not know existed that he had freed by taking down the Empire. They too were working to recoup their numbers, but by kidnappings and indoctrination, rather than Luke’s more pure form of recruiting. He tried many times to go back and find them, to free their brainwashed captives, the innocent children, but he’d been unable to find them. The Great Canyon was vast and had many labyrinthine cave systems that looped and led to dead ends deep in the earth. And that was assuming they stayed constant in that area on that planet. And now they were still active, still stealing children. But this girl, this girl was special somehow, she was somehow connecting to Luke in a way that might lead him directly to her, directly to Tamith Kai and the rest of the Great Canyon Clan.


	6. Chapter 6

The girl was on Dathomir, specifically in the Great Canyon, as a captive of the Great Canyon Clan. A captive student of the sith, kidnapped as soon as her force sensitivities were felt by one of the members, possibly by Tamith Kai herself if not by one of her disciples. Luke had made many attempts to bring harmony to the galaxy and balance to the Force by defeating this cluster of dark side users, but they’d evaded him each time, hiding in the caverns of the Great Canyon, itself a vast area of land.

But he’d never been led there by one of their captive disciples. He knew exactly what to look for as well. Although he’d never met the girl, she felt familiar somehow. If Luke were being honest with himself, he’d admit that her energy felt very similar to Ben’s. They both oozed potential, strength, and confidence. Their connections to the Force were unmatched compared to anyone else he’d encountered since starting his quest to rebuild the Jedi order. They both felt as though they were reaching out but while Ben seemed to be built on a foundation of insecurity in himself, the girl had no such lacking. Rather, her foundations seemed to be chipped away by one of the greatest poisons a Force user can encounter: desire and longing. But for what? Luke could not tell which didn’t embolden his dedication to this being a rescue mission.

He packed minimal supplies including some food and his lightsaber. He’d left R2-D2 disabled with Leia and the rest of the old rebellion so he didn’t have an astromech droid. Hopefully he wouldn’t need one or else this mission would be more doomed than it already was. He boarded his ship and took off before setting the coordinate to Dathomir and taking off.

Dathomir was far away from Ach-To, both being Outer Rim planets but on opposite sides of the Galaxy. The fact that Luke was without an astromech droid and a copilot made things harder, especially since Luke was nowhere near the pilot people like Han were even if he was decent enough by usual standards. All that to say, the trip to Dathomir would be a long one. Luke settled in. He had much to think about. Namely, what to do with the girl once he got her away from Dathomir.

Briefly, Luke began to imagine the best case scenario. He would get to Dathomir and rescue not just this girl, but dozens of other Force sensitive children. It could be his second chance at restarting the Jedi Order. He could train them to control their powers and truly connect with the Force while honoring the old Jedi ways. And this time, he would keep an eye out for whispers coming from the sith. He would know better this time. And if anything were to happen, he wouldn’t act rashly in anger.

“Is this even a possibility?” Luke asked himself about this fantasy. Starting fresh with another group of children would go against every good reason he had for being in exile. “If you want the Force to be balanced, and for the Sith to fade away, the Jedi must also fade away,” he replied to himself, almost as a mantra. And even if it didn’t go against every reason he had for his solitary exile in the Unknown Regions of the Outer Rim, who’s to say that it would even happen? It was pure fantasy, a naive dream, that no one would ever be seduced by the Dark Side. Even Luke himself had been tempted, even if it had been by his own father. And wasn’t his final act against Ben more of a dark side action itself? The Dark Side was about embracing power and giving into one’s passions, especially anger, wholeheartedly. And that was exactly what Luke had been about to do. If he couldn’t even trust himself not to be seduced to the Dark Side while training his own nephew and the first generation of the new Jedi Order, who’s to say that he’d be any more successful with a group of children who’d experienced so much pain and been taught in the ways of the Dark Side.

Could he rescue the girl and then turn her loose? Either to her parents or wherever? Or would that be too akin to leaving a loaded weapon in the middle of a major city, ready to go off as soon as the first person glances it?

Finally, the option Luke had been trying to avoid, the most reasonable and obvious one that had delayed this mission so much in the first place. It may even be inevitable. And Luke didn’t feel ready for that even though he’d nearly done the exact same thing to his own blood just recently. Luke shook his head, clearing the visions of the possible futures involving this girl. This girl and who knows how many others. This journey thus far was seeming to be exactly like his exile with a change of scenery and more climate control. In the end, he was left to his thoughts and his regrets.

Luke spent the rest of the trip thinking of what to do with the girl, assuming the mission went well, and trying to do anything but. Occasionally he would check in with her, making sure that her location hadn’t changed. It was worryingly consistent. Each time he’d looked in on her, she’d been alone in a dark, damp stone room. She was already thin and he wasn’t sure when the last time she’d eaten was. Each time she was shivering, occasionally holding aged rags around her small body. He could sense her desperation, her fear, and her loneliness. She had so much pain but the hope was somehow still there, shining more brightly in the darkness of the rest of her than any light Luke could see near her physical self. At one point Luke darkly thought that this mission might have been destined to fail from the start if the girl were to perish before he even got to Dathomir. As strong as her spirit miraculously still was, Luke could sense that she was weakening.

A much more preferable and effective use of his mental energy and time was planning out how exactly he was going to enact this mission. He was a skilled Jedi, yes, but he was still just one man travelling alone without so much as a droid to act as reinforcement. Keeping a low profile would make the most sense, but that was easier said than done. He would be travelling through the labyrinthine caverns and tunnels guided by the Force to this girl which did not leave much room for invasion strategy. He did not even know basic logistic questions such as what their defenses were like or even how many people would be there. How many were innocent captives and how many were hostile? And how much did those two groups overlap? There were so many unknowns that Luke was able to spend most of his time thinking through that and avoiding thinking about what to do if he were successful. He needed a plan but he didn’t know enough to make a plan. It needed to be precise but flexible, effective but vague, and most of all, it needed to account for the level of risk and disadvantage he was coming with.


	7. Chapter 7

The girl was on Dathomir, specifically in the Great Canyon as a captive of the Great Canyon Clan. A captive student of the sith, kidnapped as soon as her force sensitivities were felt by one of the members, possibly by Tamith Kai herself if not by one of her disciples. Luke had made many attempts to bring harmony to the galaxy and balance to the Force by defeating this cluster of dark side users, but they’d evaded him each time, hiding in the caverns of the Great Canyon, itself a vast area of land.

But he’d never been led there by one of their captive disciples. He knew exactly what to look for as well. Although he’d never met the girl, she felt familiar somehow. If Luke were being honest with himself, he’d admit that her energy felt very similar to Ben’s. They both oozed potential, strength, and confidence. Their connections to the Force were unmatched compared to anyone else he’d encountered since starting his quest to rebuild the Jedi order. They both felt as though they were reaching out but while Ben seemed to be built on a foundation of insecurity in himself, the girl had no such lacking. Rather, her foundations seemed to be chipped away by one of the greatest poisons a Force user can encounter: desire and longing. But for what? Luke could not tell which didn’t embolden his dedication to this being a rescue mission.

He packed minimal supplies including some food and his lightsaber. He’d left R2-D2 disabled with Leia and the rest of the old rebellion so he didn’t have an astromech droid. Hopefully he wouldn’t need one or else this mission would be more doomed than it already was. He boarded his ship and took off before setting the coordinate to Dathomir and taking off.

Dathomir was far away from Ach-To, both being Outer Rim planets but on opposite sides of the Galaxy. The fact that Luke was without an astromech droid and a copilot made things harder, especially since Luke was nowhere near the pilot people like Han were even if he was decent enough by usual standards. All that to say, the trip to Dathomir would be a long one. Luke settled in. He had much to think about. Namely, what to do with the girl once he got her away from Dathomir.

Briefly, Luke began to imagine the best case scenario. He would get to Dathomir and rescue not just this girl, but dozens of other Force sensitive children. It could be his second chance at restarting the Jedi Order. He could train them to control their powers and truly connect with the Force while honoring the old Jedi ways. And this time, he would keep an eye out for whispers coming from the sith. He would know better this time. And if anything were to happen, he wouldn’t act rashly in anger.

“Is this even a possibility?” Luke asked himself about this fantasy. Starting fresh with another group of children would go against every good reason he had for being in exile. “If you want the Force to be balanced, and for the Sith to fade away, the Jedi must also fade away,” he replied to himself, almost as a mantra. And even if it didn’t go against every reason he had for his solitary exile in the Unknown Regions of the Outer Rim, who’s to say that it would even happen? It was pure fantasy, a naive dream, that no one would ever be seduced by the Dark Side. Even Luke himself had been tempted, even if it had been by his own father. And wasn’t his final act against Ben more of a dark side action itself? The Dark Side was about embracing power and giving into one’s passions, especially anger, wholeheartedly. And that was exactly what Luke had been about to do. If he couldn’t even trust himself not to be seduced to the Dark Side while training his own nephew and the first generation of the new Jedi Order, who’s to say that he’d be any more successful with a group of children who’d experienced so much pain and been taught in the ways of the Dark Side.

Could he rescue the girl and then turn her loose? Either to her parents or wherever? Or would that be too akin to leaving a loaded weapon in the middle of a major city, ready to go off as soon as the first person glances it?

Finally, the option Luke had been trying to avoid, the most reasonable and obvious one that had delayed this mission so much in the first place. It may even be inevitable. And Luke didn’t feel ready for that even though he’d nearly done the exact same thing to his own blood just recently. Luke shook his head, clearing the visions of the possible futures involving this girl. This girl and who knows how many others. This journey thus far was seeming to be exactly like his exile with a change of scenery and more climate control. In the end, he was left to his thoughts and his regrets.

Luke spent the rest of the trip thinking of what to do with the girl, assuming the mission went well, and trying to do anything but. Occasionally he would check in with her, making sure that her location hadn’t changed. It was worryingly consistent. Each time he’d looked in on her, she’d been alone in a dark, damp stone room. She was already thin and he wasn’t sure when the last time she’d eaten was. Each time she was shivering, occasionally holding aged rags around her small body. He could sense her desperation, her fear, and her loneliness. She had so much pain but the hope was somehow still there, shining more brightly in the darkness of the rest of her than any light Luke could see near her physical self. At one point Luke darkly thought that this mission might have been destined to fail from the start if the girl were to perish before he even got to Dathomir. As strong as her spirit miraculously still was, Luke could sense that she was weakening.

A much more preferable and effective use of his mental energy and time was planning out how exactly he was going to enact this mission. He was a skilled Jedi, yes, but he was still just one man travelling alone without so much as a droid to act as reinforcement. Keeping a low profile would make the most sense, but that was easier said than done. He would be travelling through the labyrinthine caverns and tunnels guided by the Force to this girl which did not leave much room for invasion strategy. He did not even know basic logistic questions such as what their defenses were like or even how many people would be there. How many were innocent captives and how many were hostile? And how much did those two groups overlap? There were so many unknowns that Luke was able to spend most of his time thinking through that and avoiding thinking about what to do if he were successful. He needed a plan but he didn’t know enough to make a plan. It needed to be precise but flexible, effective but vague, and most of all, it needed to account for the level of risk and disadvantage he was coming with.

Some time later--it’s hard to keep track of exactly how much time has passed during space travel--the ship came out of light speed as it approached Dathomir. Luke’s plan at this point had essentially boiled down to land the ship and then play it by ear and feel. He landed near that same prison he’d investigated years before and had not seen for some time, knowing that the Great Canyon Clan avoided it. He left the ship and stepped down on land, neglecting to take in the lush, green scenery that contrasted so greatly with the dark caves the Clan occupied. He trekked down the cliffs that led into the Great Canyon, following a somewhat familiar path down. It took him some time to get all the way down, he had landed in the bright light of day and yet it was nearly dusk by the time he reached the bottom. He walked along a river bed that had long since run dry, keeping his mind clear and open for any hints of the girl. He could feel her more strongly than before, the proximity amplifying his sense of her. But where was she?

He reached the first tunnel and set out a hand to pinpoint his focus. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t down the second or third tunnel either. At some point he’d lost count. As the night grew darker and began to grow cold, he considered the risks of resting for the night. He didn’t want to be caught vulnerable and sleeping, but he also didn’t want to walk for days and face the entire Clan himself. He didn’t have to consider these options for long, as just as he was considering a particularly flat, smooth rock as a place to rest, he reached a small tunnel, one partially obscured by rocks and boulders that sat in front of the entrance.  _ She was this way _ .

He entered the tunnel. It required some maneuvering around the rocks blocking the entrance and was a bit of a tight squeeze but he managed. He continued down the tunnel that was just as circuitous as ones he'd explored during previous attempts to confront the Clan. But this time he had the beacon of the girl acting as a guiding light that kept him from the dead ends and missing hidden forks and turns. At a certain point, when he was sure he was deep within the mountain, he started to wonder if he'd even be able to make it out after this. Assuming there'd be an after this.

Eventually the appearance of the tunnel shifted from natural, rocky cavern to dark, damp corridor. The rocky, dirt earth that made up the ground, walls, and ceiling shifted to metal paneling resembling any modern building. The shape transitioned from irregular and cramped to square, and sizable. Now it seemed more like a cramped hallway one would walk through on a moderately sized star ship rather than the crude caverns he’d been navigating through before. He was getting close, and he had physical proof of it, rather than the metaphysical proof he’d been relying on from following the feelings from the girl. He eventually made his way to an atrium and at this point he was starting to feel suspicious. It had been too easy. Surely there only security couldn’t be the confidence that no one would find them, although considering how much difficulty Luke had had, that did seem to be a fairly effective strategy on its own.

His guard up even higher than it had already been, he sensed which way to go and went towards one of the four possible doors that he felt would lead him to the girl. He approached the closed door. Suddenly he felt a knot in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t have R2 or any other astromech droid. He didn’t have any droids period. How was he supposed to get past the door in the nearly certain instance that it was locked? Except it wasn’t. Well, not from the outside. The door opened as soon as Luke got near and he realized that it wasn’t meant to keep anyone out, but rather to keep anyone on the other side in. Keeping an open door open was much easier than getting a closed door to open, so, using the powers of the Force, he held the doors open as he made his way in.

This corridor was familiar. It seemed exactly the same as the prison wing in the facility that he had investigated years earlier. They’d modeled the quarters for their captives to be almost exactly like the cells they themselves had been kept in by the Empire. And, just like before, he passed by open, empty cell after open, empty cell. Was the girl even here still? He could feel her, but what if it was just an illusion? He continued on. The one difference between this hall and the one in the other facility was this one was much larger and more extensive. He was constantly turning into wing after wing. Not every hall was lined with cells. In fact, most of the passages were dark, stony halls that seemed to only serve the purpose of keeping one barren area connected to another.

He turned down yet another corridor only to encounter a dense wall. “A dead end!” he exclaimed in his head. He suddenly became very aware that this very well seemed like the most obvious trap he could have fallen for. He swung his fist at the wall in anger and his hand swept through.

“An illusion,” he thought as he walked through it. He didn’t go very far as no more than a couple feet past the false dead end was a door. He could tell just by looking at it that it was highly reinforced and locked. He closed his eyes, trying to see if anyone was inside. He saw the girl.

“Hello,” he said to her.

She gasped, startled, and looked around. “Hello? Who’s that?” She shouted with more fear than actual intrigue.

“I’m here to rescue you,” he said calmly. “I’m here to take you from this place...if you so desire.”

“I don’t believe you! Surely this is a test! The mistress said no one would ever be able to find me down here. She said that I’d be here forever, until I died,” she said the last sentence more softly, somewhere between a whisper and a whimper. But Luke heard the dishonesty in it. She was in disbelief that someone was here to rescue her, but she didn’t believe that she’d be here forever.

“I need you to back away from the door. I’m going to break you out of there.” The girl backed away from the door, curling up on the floor on the opposite side. The room was small so she wasn’t very far, but it would have to do. Luke took out his lightsaber and stabbed it through the primary mechanical lock and handle. He’d try to melt away the door’s primary points of contact with the wall, rather than try to get past every piece that reinforced its placement. It wasn’t a very fast process, but it was the best option especially with the girl so close on the other side. He finally got through the lock and handle as well as the hinges and used the Force to get the disconnected door out of the doorway. The door fell out, revealing the prisoner inside.

Luke hadn’t really gotten a good look of her before, seeing her mostly in blurry flashes but mostly feeling her emotions and connection to the Force itself. She was even smaller than he realized. She looked to be around the age of ten or so but her build was incredibly stunted. She had dark, slightly matted hair that was pulled back with a strap of fabric. Rags hung loosely off her thin frame. She was dirty all over. She looked up at him with large hazel eyes that betrayed every ounce of fear and hope that she had.

“Who are you?” she asked as she stood up.

“I’m Luke. Now let’s get out of here,” Luke said, motioning for her to follow. She took two steps and then began to wobble.

“I’m sorry. I’m just really tired. And hungry. I haven’t eaten in a while.”

Luke could have guessed that from the sight of her. He acted fast to scoop her up into his arms. She whimpered and hissed slightly as his hands touched certain parts of her along her arms, legs and torso. He realized that she wasn’t just covered in dirt, but also many bruises and other sores. A soiled bandage was loosely fastened around her wrist. Her hands were covered in a mix of scars and sores. Luke needed to get her out here.  _ Now _ .

He rushed along the same, strange, circuitous path that he had come through to get back to that atrium and then back to the canyon. He made his way back to the atrium but the girl shouted at him as he went towards the door he’d come in from.

“No! Not that way! Any time I’ve gone that way it’s been booby-trapped!”

Of course, the security was built in so that it would be difficult to find this place at all, and then impossible to leave once you were here. So how to get out?

Luke took a moment and collected himself. He closed his eyes and tried to feel around him, attempting to uninhibit himself from the fear of discovery. He needed to let the Force guide him out if they ever wanted a chance of escape. He walked in the direction the Force led him, eyes still closed. He encountered a door and placed his hand on it. The door opened, revealing an elevator.

Luke opened his eyes and looked at the girl. She stared at the elevator in wide eyed confusion. Luke took that as a good sign. If captives didn’t know it existed, it was less likely to be a trap. He stepped into the elevator and went up and up and up. After what felt like an eternity but was in actuality just over a couple of minutes, it came to a stop. The door opened and Luke stepped out into a very familiar corridor. It was the facility where the Nightsisters had been kept as prisoners themselves all those years ago. Their home had turned into their prison, and they expanded their prison into a prison of their own. Luke took the familiar path towards the exit until he stopped when he felt a disturbance.

He looked ahead and saw her, the girl’s sith mistress, Luke’s long-escaped foe, Tamith Kai. He rushed to put the girl down behind him, trying to shield her without trapping her. He squared up, reaching for his lightsaber when--

“No!” the girl shouted, screeched, almost louder than Luke could stand. She shouted it over and over again, waving her hand out towards the sith master. A palpable shock wave emanated from her. The physical sensation was almost enough to knock Luke off his feet even though she wasn’t directing it at him. Rage came off of her in equal levels. Deep down, Luke began to feel fear of what might be about to happen, of what was happening.

And then, she was done. Luke looked around. He himself was untouched by anything that had happened. He could not say the same of any of the surroundings. Light fixtures were cracked and barely hanging on. The ceiling sagged. The walls were pushed out. And Tamith Kai’s crumpled body was in a misshapen pile at the other end of the hall.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: **TW for descriptions of injuries to a child**

The girl was badly injured and in need of medical intervention. She was unconscious now. She was weak when he found her and then her Force expression drained any reserves that she may have had. Luke didn’t want to try waking her, but he could tell she needed food, water, and medical aid.

He’d gotten a closer look at her body and a better examination of her injuries once they were back on the ship. She was utterly covered in bruises and burns. He had identified several breaks that hadn’t quite set right. She had a large welt along her cheek. Closer examination of her neck revealed some soft tissue injuries around her throat. She was definitely younger than Ben, a child, probably no older than ten. She looked so much more peaceful now in her sleep. The rage and fear had melted away, leaving a child one could imagine was just dirty and was innocent. Luke had to bring her somewhere. He didn’t have the skills or the resources to heal her. He knew exactly where he needed to go, even if it might not be ideal, he didn’t have much of a choice. She needed help. He went to the pilot’s seat and set the coordinates for Takodana.

Luke had met Maz Kanata shortly after the Empire’s fall. She was an old...friend of Han’s who didn’t care for politics but was usually willing to help a friend. And he could use a politically neutral friend.

He walked back over to the girl to check on her. She was still unconscious, though he could tell that it wasn’t a restful sleep. The expression on her face was as pained as ever. He placed a hand on her back. A surge of energy flowed from her to him, nearly knocking him back. It wasn’t enough that she was emanating waves of rage and fear, but it amplified more than tenfold when he touched her. What had he just done? Did he just release a ticking time bomb, bound to go off? Or had he managed to interfere before the bomb was fully armed? This girl had managed to kill a powerful dark-sided Force user by the sheer power of will and rage on accident.

The girl sniffled and shuddered, still asleep. The look on Luke’s face softened as he looked at her, her frail body probably chilled. He put his cloak over her and tucked her in, then went back to the pilot’s seat to send a message to Maz and let her know he was on his way.

The girl had just started to stir as they left lightspeed to touch down on Takodana. She glanced up at Luke questioningly but didn’t say anything.

“We’re here to see a friend of mine. She’s going to help us--help you,” he said in response to her unspoken question.

The girl was now sitting up. She unconsciously pulled Luke’s cloak up around her, until she caught herself and placed it back down. She darted her eyes up at Luke before quickly darting them back to some space in front of her.

“You’re going to be okay. I’ll make sure of that,” Luke said with a level of confidence that did not match his complete lack of a plan in regard to her. He stepped towards her and crouched down, moving to place his hand on her arm in a comforting gesture but she reflexively flinched away.

“I’m not going to hurt you. I promise,” he said as he moved his hand away. He got up and took a step back to give her more space. She needed time. And food. And medical care.

Luke landed the ship on the edge of a lake by Maz’s place.

“Can you walk?” he asked the girl.

She nodded meekly. She shed the cloak that was covering her and stood up shakily.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded again, looking down and avoiding eye contact. The two stepped down out of the ship and walked the short distance to Maz’s place. Luke took slow steps to match the girl’s pace. Her steps were short and choppy and she had a bit of a limp. He could hear the occasional quiet gasp that came with her breaths. Luke’s certainty that Maz could help was starting to shift to a wistful hope.

They approached the castle and Luke entered through the door, ushering the girl behind him. Maz was always incredibly welcoming to travellers and gracious towards old friends. He could hear the commotion coming from the main room of the many people Maz was presumably hosting. He stopped at the top of the short staircase and stared into the room, eyes searching for the small, orange woman he’d come to see. He finally caught sight of her at the end of the room and nodded at her. She said something to the delphidian she’d been addressing and then scurried towards him, her big eyes glancing him up and down before catching sight of the girl.

“Why hello! Care for a drink or is this visit strictly business? You know how I feel about strictly business,” Maz greeted Luke, her large eyes glancing for the briefest of moments at the girl.

“Just could use some help from a friendly face Maz,” Luke responded with a smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. And then, in a lower, more serious voice, “Preferably somewhere private.”

Maz ushered them to an empty room in her castle. Two cups and a large plate full of food were waiting on a table along with two cots that had been made up. Once the door was sealed and he could be sure they were alone, Luke started, “The girl is badly hurt and could use some of your skills. And I could use your discretion. I’m not back.”

Maz nodded and turned towards the girl who was eyeing the food and drinks with desperate restraint. “How about you help yourself to as much as you want while a couple of old friends catch up?” She glanced up at Maz with wide eyes. Then, after a moment of hesitation, scrambled towards the table and was already chowing down by the time Maz and Luke turned towards the door. They settled in another of Maz’s private rooms.

“So what’s the story? I thought you were gone ever since…” Maz trailed off, eyes fixed on Luke.

“She was captive to the Great Canyon Clan, the Nightsisters. She’s powerful. I had visions of her most nights for months, leading me to her. I don’t think she projected out intentionally. I think it’s just raw, undirected power fuelled by fear and rage. And hope.”

Maz nodded thoughtfully. “What are you going to do with her now? Does she have people?”

“I don’t know. I don’t really know anything about her. I worry that she’s been led too far down the path of the dark side of the Force. That if I pry too much it may set her off. That and she’s in pretty rough shape. It seemed better to let her heal physically before tapping into her past too much. Tamith Kai has been known to do horrible things to the families left behind by her ‘recruits’ ever since I started trying to track her down.”

“Do you want me to talk to her then? I tend to have a...gentler touch with these sorts of things.”

Luke’s mouth pulled into a soft smile. “Thanks Maz. But I think I can handle it.”

“Can you? Do you think you can?” Maz asked, leaning forward abruptly with a hint of accusation guiding her tone.

Luke gulped and steeled himself. “I can.”

In the brief time that Luke and Maz were gone, the girl had managed to drink all of the water, eat all the food, and was trying to sop up the last bits of juices off of the plate with the dirty fingers of one hand while sucking on the dirty fingers of the other. Maz took in the scene and chuckled quietly.

“I’ll get you some more if you’d like. Why don’t you go wash up first. Then I’ll have one of my guys take a look at you and get you fixed up. Maz led the girl to a small washroom adjacent to the one they were in. Luke sat down, easing himself down onto one of the cots. He closed his eyes, mind still racing about the next step. He could overhear Maz talking to Rey, gently prodding for answers despite Luke’s assurance that he could handle that. Not being in much of a place to interject, he simply listened.

“So what’s your name dear?” Maz asked.

“Rey,” the girl answered quietly.

“Rey who?”

“I don’t know. Just Rey.”

“Well where do you come from? Who are your family?”

There was silence for a moment. And then a small “I don’t know.”

“I see. When was the last time you were with your family? Do you have a family?”

Silence. Just silence. Luke concentrated hard and could make out the faint sound of Rey holding back sobs. He could hear just the faintest whimper over quickened, uneven breath.

“That’s fine dear. We don’t need to worry about that now. We just want to get you back home,” Maz said in a softer, more soothing tone. “Well anyways I’ll leave you to it. Call out if there’s anything else you need. I’ll get my guy to come fix you up as soon as you’re done.” Maz left the washroom and glanced at Luke who was now pacing, alert and agitated. He waited for a beat and then sat back on the bed, concentrating. 

The girl, Rey, came out soon after. Her hands and face were cleaner now although she still had a layer of grime over her that would need time and several more washings to get off. Her expression was blank as she came into the room and stopped in the middle of the room suddenly, subtly glancing around.

“That one can be yours,” Luke said pointing to the second cot. “Or you can have this one if you’d prefer.”

She shrank back, body still, eyes occasionally darting at Luke. This was the girl, so full of hope and love that it called out to Luke across the galaxy in ways Luke had to intentionally block. And yet, the fear seemed deeply etched into her. Luke decided to go for a direct, but gentle, approach.

“Do you know what a Jedi is, Rey?”

She looked up and then quickly nodded her head in the negative, the tension in her shoulders easing just a fraction.

“Would you like to hear about them?”

She nodded.

“The Force connects all living things. Everyone is one with the Force, but some are able to use the Force to do their bidding. Some use this ability to do terrible things, they act in anger and self interest. Then there are the Jedi. It’s a dying breed. They are the ones who use the Force for the good of others, not for themselves. I am a Jedi. And I believe you are as well. Well, you could be. You are powerful. Your reflexes are better than anyone else you knew until you were taken by Kai. You can move things by sheer force of will. With practice, you could convince others to do what you tell them to do. And all of this is because you have a deep connection with the Force.”

Rey listened with rapt attention. “This thing, I can do. I am not a monster?”

“No Rey. You are not.”

Rey’s face fell and her lip began to tremble as she clearly was holding back tears. She gradually began to quietly sob, turning away from Luke with hunched shoulders.

“What’s wrong?” Luke asked as he fought the urge to go to her to offer comfort for fear of frightening her more.

“My parents. They said I was a monster. They said I was a witch. Because I could make stuff happen. I didn’t mean to. But that’s why they got rid of me. That’s why they sold me to Mistress Kai. They didn’t want a monster. I’m a monster!” She had now fallen into full sobs. Luke could feel the despair pouring off of her in waves as a disturbance in the Force. Even her sadness was palpable.

Luke finally decided it was worth the risk to go to her to comfort her. He walked towards her and stood over her and placed his hand on her back, softly stroking it while trying to send off waves of encouragement.

“You are not a monster.”

“Then why did they send me away? And why didn’t they ever come back? They said it was just for a little while. They said they’d come back.”

Luke felt the core of hope within her flicker out.

**A/N: I'm pretty sure there's going to be one more chapter. Originally I was planning on having the second half of this one be a part of the last one but I thought the chapter breaks made more sense like this as I was reading over it.**


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